Nationwide Children's Hospital Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started with a phone screen with HR and then the hiring manager. After that, there was an in-person interview with the team. I was really disappointed because the HR person, who was professional and engaging at first, totally ghosted me. I couldn't get them to call me back when I emailed and called their direct line. I drove over 6 hours for the interview and dealt with a lot of traffic, but when I got there, it was over 80 degrees outside and I was traveling from out of state, and they didn't even offer me a bathroom or a bottle of water. I was very interested in the job and have over 25 years of experience. The person they hired seemed to have maybe five years of experience, based on my guess from their age. When I called the main hospital number and asked to be transferred to the HR person, they answered right away, clearly surprised it was me, an active candidate. They had ignored my direct call just 3 minutes before, and also my messages from the previous two weeks. If you think professionalism is lacking, I agree, especially since this person told me to reach out with any questions. A simple email or phone call back is the least I expect, given professional manners and the expectation they set.

I applied on the company website. After that, HR called me for a phone review. Then, there was a manager interview, all within about 3 weeks. After that, I had an hour-long team group interview. I got hired the week after. They were looking for someone who would be a good fit for the team, and they asked everyone questions and also gave us a chance to ask questions.

Had a phone call with HR about pay, hours, and location, then scheduled a virtual meeting with the hiring manager. That meeting was pretty standard and the manager didn't seem very informed about the job. HR then called to set up more interviews with people the role works with. My first in-person interview was with the nursing lead, division chief, administration, and someone else, but they weren't available so I had to come back. The second in-person interview was with the division chief, a 45-minute break, then another interview, but again, the administrative person wasn't available, so I had to come back a third day. The whole thing took about six weeks and was disorganized and unprofessional.

The hiring process was long and complicated. First, I had to qualify for an interview time slot for a big hiring event by getting past the computer gatekeeper. Candidates were being sent home left and right because the computer gatekeeper apparently let a lot of people through that didn’t make the cut. They were all sent home for not having one full year experience in a medical setting in the last 3 years. I even witnessed one who worked in a chemical dependency program for 11 months who was told to come back in 30 days. Brutal! Then there were a couple of weeks of waiting for background checks and such. NCH has this whole process down to a science and all of it was painlessly done online. The only thing that really stood out was that every piece of paperwork indicated that the drug test would be a urinalysis, including the ones I signed that gave permission to legally collect my bodily fluid samples in the first place. However, they had me shove a sandpaper feeling sponge in my mouth and rub it around for 10 minutes to gather up some saliva instead, turning the inside of my mouth to ground meat in the process. The tech said, “Oh, yeah. We switched to saliva tests a couple of months ago.” This felt almost like a staged “gotcha moment” and did very little to instill trust in NCH as a potential employer. This stands especially true when you get into the organization and realize that NCH is meticulous about literally every minute detail and “mistakes” like outdated paperwork being distributed for months on end simply don’t happen. This was the only part of the process that made me question my interest in working for NCH. It was seriously shady.